The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Weigela plant, botanically known as Weigela florida, and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘Carlton’.
The new Weigela is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Grand Haven, Mich. The objective of the breeding program was to develop new Weigelas with unique leaf shapes and coloration, uniform plant habit and hardiness.
The new Weigela originated from an open-pollination in 2003 of the Weigela florida cultivar Rubidor, not patented. The cultivar Carlton was discovered and selected by the Inventor in 2004 as a flowering plant within the progeny of the stated open-pollination in a controlled environment in Grand Haven, Mich. Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by cuttings in Grand Haven, Mich. since the summer of 2004 has shown that the unique features of this new Weigela plant are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations of asexual reproduction.